The Associated Press file photoCountry star Brad Paisley will be one of the pre-race performers, along with Martina McBride, at Sunday's Daytona 500. Paisley will also be an Honorary Pace Car Driver.

NASCAR Press Release

The biggest race of the year brings out some of the biggest names in show business.

Here are a few of the celebrities that will be at the 53rd running of the Daytona 500: Country singers/song writers Martina McBride will sing the National Anthem and Brad Paisley will perform the pre-race concert. Paisley will also serve as an Honorary Pace Car driver. Also actor Josh Duhamel, actress Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and director Michael Bay will serve as the Grand Marshals for the race. The NASCAR cars from the movie, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, will lead a pace lap as well during the pre-race festivities.

Daytona 500 Winner: Immediate Front Runner For The Chase

Pardon this obvious statement, but: The winner of the first race will be the points leader, and the wins leader.

Though brutally obvious, here’s why it’s also very important: With the restructured way the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup field is set this season, wins are more important than ever.

As in past years, the top 10 in points after race No. 26 will make it into the Chase. But this season, spots 11 and 12 will go to the drivers outside the top 10 with the most victories, provided they are in the top 20 in points.

So, any win could prove vital come Chase time. Take last year’s Daytona 500 winner, Jamie McMurray, for example. Had the current system been in place last season, he would have earned one of the “wild card” spots.

Almost forgotten amidst the Daytona 500 anticipation: The restructured points system. The Daytona 500 will be the first race under the simpler point structure. First place will pay 43 points, second 42, third 41, etc. An additional three points will be added to the winner’s total. A one-point bonus will be awarded to any driver who leads a lap, and another point for leading the most laps. The highest possible total for the winner will be 48 points.

The Favorites

Looking for a favorite? Good luck with that.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. might have said it best after his pole-winning lap during Sunday’s qualifying, when asked if he could win the 2011 Daytona 500: “About 30 of us can.”

A Ford driver would be a pretty neat story. Its next win would be No. 600 all-time. The company’s first came in 1950, at Dayton (Ohio) Speedway, with Jimmy Florian driving. Its last came in the 2010 season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, with driver Carl Edwards.

Need some more possibilities? How about anyone with an Earnhardt-Childress Racing engine under the hood? ECR engines swept the restrictor plate races last season. Jamie McMurray and Kevin Harvick won the two Daytona races; Harvick and Clint Bowyer won the Talladega races.

The pre-race Driver Rating is usually a strong indicator for success. The top five in that statistic: Tony Stewart (100.7), Kyle Busch (99.0), Kurt Busch (94.8), Jeff Gordon (92.8) and Jimmie Johnson (91.7).

Speaking of Kurt Busch, he would join an impressive list of drivers to have won both the Budweiser Shootout and the Daytona 500 in the same season: Bobby Allison (1982), Bill Elliott (1987), Dale Jarrett (1996), Jeff Gordon (1997) and Jarrett again (2000).

Past, Future Collide In Much Anticipated Daytona 500

The pavement. The record-breaking opener. The name, Earnhardt. The anniversary.

Alone, each storyline could lead any discussion forum. Each has layers, and
meat, to it. There’s so much to dissect and discuss. Have at it, and have a good time:

The new pavement: Daytona International Speedway recently repaved its
2.5-mile surface, in case you hadn’t heard. The first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race run on the new pavement – the non-points Budweiser Shootout – was run last Saturday. That event, combined with a series-wide test in January and a Goodyear Tire Test in December, have led drivers to hint that this could be the wildest Daytona 500 in history. There’s a pretty good history in terms of Daytona 500s on fresh asphalt. The inaugural Daytona 500 in 1959, won by Lee Petty, was so close it took three days to declare a winner. In 1979, the first Daytona 500 after the first repave, will forever be known for “The Fight” involving Cale Yarborough and Bobby and Donnie Allison.

The record-breaking opener: The Budweiser Shootout featured an event-record 28 lead changes. The previous record was 21, in 2009. The Daytona 500 could see similar numbers. Consider this: The Budweiser Shootout is a 75-lap event; the Daytona 500 is 200 laps. The Daytona 500 records suddenly in peril: 60 lead changes in 1974. The high for lead changes all around the track, and not only at the S/F line: 170, last year.

The name, Earnhardt: For eight years running, Dale Earnhardt Jr. has been voted NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver. A 93-race winless drought – dating back to June of 2008 – has dampened Junior Nation’s spirits. But this is the Daytona 500, a race in which Earnhardt has led a lap in eight of his 11 starts. Bank on Earnhardt leading this one, too. He won the pole last Sunday, and will lead the 43-car field to the green. Earnhardt is celebrating a milestone this weekend – his 400th career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start.

The anniversary: This weekend is the 10-year anniversary of the death of Dale Earnhardt following an accident on the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500. Daytona International Speedway has asked fans to celebrate Earnhardt’s career by remaining silent during the third lap of Sunday’s 53rd Daytona 500. Commemorative No. 3 decals will adorn all of Richard Childress Racing’s race cars and trucks, transporters and pit boxes throughout the week.

Bill Elliott: Experience On All Three Surfaces

Bill Elliott, the 1988 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion, has driven a race car on each of the three Daytona International Speedway surfaces. He competed on the original surface from 1976-78, the second edition from 1979-2010, and though he hasn’t run a race on the new surface yet, he has practiced and qualified on it.

Here’s some of what he said about the three surfaces. “So many things have changed, the cars are so different. Back then…your cars had less downforce than you have today so the cars didn’t stick as well. The surface was pretty good, but it was still a fast race. But then you turn around and look at what it evolved to last year and it came down to handling. Now that’s kind of out the window, and you are going to look at something different even again.”